A group of military personnel staged an attempted coup d’état in Niger this Saturday. The soldiers attacked the Presidential Palace, the Diori Hamani International Airport, and base 101 in Niamey, the capital of the country, but they encountered strong resistance from soldiers loyal to the president, General Abdourahamane Tiani, who reportedly regained control of the situation, according to the Government. The fighting began in the early hours of this Saturday and continued into the morning. In a statement read on national television, the Minister of Defense, Salifou Modi, confirmed “a mutiny” by soldiers from base 101 who “kidnapped some of their comrades and fired shots at certain sensitive sites in the city of Niamey.”
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Residents of the capital reported that the gunfire began around one in the morning and spread particularly to the neighborhood where the president’s residence and the national television headquarters are located, as well as the surroundings of the airport and the aforementioned military base 101, which houses a drone base as well as two foreign detachments, Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps and a contingent of 300 Italian soldiers carrying out military cooperation tasks. Sources close to the events stated that military units from the interior of the country, particularly from Tillaberi and Dosso, regions near Niamey and especially affected by jihadist attacks, had joined the mutinous soldiers in the capital.
The rebel soldiers, among whom were members of the special forces, tried to take control of Radio Television Nigeria (RTN), which stopped broadcasting for hours, and to access the presidential palace, but were repelled by forces loyal to the military junta governing the country, particularly elements of the presidential guard. Confusion still reigned this Saturday about the motives of the mutineers, but in recent weeks there had been leaks about some discontent in the Army due to the significant losses suffered in the fight against jihadist groups operating in the country.
In the early hours of the military uprising, many citizens thought it was a new attack by radical Islamists against the airport, as had happened last January by the Islamic State and in June by forces of the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM, by its Arabic acronym). However, the automatic weapon fire around the presidential palace and the television station raised suspicions that it was an attempted coup d’état, as was later confirmed.
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Niger has been governed by General Tiani since the coup d’état on July 26, 2023, when he took up arms to overthrow President Mohamed Bazoum, who was democratically elected and who three years later remains forcibly held in a wing of the presidential palace. The military took power alleging the government’s lack of commitment in the fight against jihadist groups, as had happened in previous years in Mali and Burkina Faso. As in the neighboring Sahel countries, the Nigerien military junta expelled French soldiers and allied with Russia, which sent mercenaries to Niamey. Despite the time elapsed, the radicals continue to show great operational capacity to inflict severe damage on the Army, as they have recently demonstrated.
Currently, Niger is part of the Sahel States Alliance (AES) along with the aforementioned Mali and Burkina Faso after the three countries broke with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
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